Tickets go on sale Friday (at 10am), but one of you will already have a pair of tickets to see Bob Dylan November 20th at the Verizon Center because we’re giving them away before you can even buy them!

If you read TVD, you surely can already appreciate being given the opportunity to see this living legend, whose accomplishments include winning eleven Grammys and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but just in case, 5min.com has a nice little (five-minute) recap of the life of the folk-rock-poet-political-activist.

Over the past fifty-plus years, in Bob Dylan’s exceptional and prolific career, he’s inspired countless musicians and had at least one band name themselves after one of his albums (Blonde on Blonde from the late ’60s, also a Nada Surf song).

Dylan will be joined by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, who just released his latest album Privateering earlier this month. Dylan’s own latest album (his thirty-fifth studio album), Tempest, is out tomorrow, September 11th.

We’re going to make this easy on you. To enter to win the tickets, tell us your favorite Bob Dylan collaboration, cover, or inspiration. There are so many.

Besides Blonde on Blonde, both the band and the song, I have to call the GNR version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.”You understand.

I would say the film “I’m Not There” is what ignited my love for Bob Dylan. It’s such an incredible film that really gets across the variations in Dylan as a person and artist. A close second would be Adele’s cover of “Make You Feel My Love.”

Mike

Jimi Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtower

Nik

I’ve always been a huge Dylan fan, and I love Rage Against the Machine’s cover of “Maggie’s Farm.”

hirschb

While I agree with the above post…. the “I’m Not There” Soundtrack is a killer….. I think my fave Dylan cover is Threw it All Away from the President Yo La Tengo album.

Jeff Melia

I’m a fan of the Johnny Cash version of Forever Young. Dylan’s version always came across to me as a song of hope for another person, but Cash’s recording strikes me as an old man trying to pass on the wisdom of his life so it wasn’t amassed in vain. His haunting voice rattles me to the core.

AM

oh man there are SO many but today I’m feeling Pearl Jam’s version of “Masters of War”

My favorite Bob cover has to be Marcus Carl Franklin’s rendition of Bob Dylan’s “When The Ship Comes In” – it’s not a groundbreaking new take on the song, but the vocals are done so well, it’s lovely.

http://twitter.com/jmbadlam throwitin

From 1962 to 1979, no one in rock music were as productive as Bob Dylan. This amazing level of productivity was backed by arguably the strongest catalog of music by any artist in our lifetime. Dylan’s legacy will endure on forever and critics will constantly ask themselves who the next Dylan is. So many his albums are must-haves for any collector or appreciator of fine musical craftsmanship. I’m looking at you: Self-Titled, Blonde on Blonde, Bringing It All Back Home, Blood on the Tracks, Highway 61 Revisited, etc. In my humble opinion, New Morning is also up there with those albums.

Bob Dylan’s catalog is so much more than that. Dylan’s musicianship and craft is highly acclaimed for his ability to reinvent himself and stretch his sound to new levels. Dylan found this through collaboration, working with his peers, and, sometimes, taking songs of contemporaries and turning them into his own.

But, to me, nothing reaches the pantheon of Dylan’s collaborations like The Band does. Dylan’s showmanship was a compliment to a normally hard-working, humble rock band. The Band embodied the passionate spirit that Dylan sometimes lacked or failed to convey. Dylan and The Band offered no psychedelic jams or gimmicks. They offered music that was stately and homespun. This creative genesis is beautifully present in a live album, Before The Flood, which should easily crack the top-5 of must haves for live LPs. I challenge you to find a Bob Dylan more inspiring than on that record. Play it loud.

Jada Watford

“Who killed Davey Moore” redux by Colin Munro is the first song I truly listened to by Bob Dylan, and it opened my eyes to the amazing music that he makes. Bob Dylan is a huge inspiration.

dg1793

I love the White Stripe’s version of One More Cup of Coffee. Heartbreak has never sounded so raw.

John

Song for Bob Dylan by David Bowie is my favorite nod to Bob Dylan. Bowie really nailed the Dylan sound on that tune.

John

I always liked Ron Woods cover of Seven Days. I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but it’s what I thought of.

the Byrds were excellent interpreters of Dylan’s material. While “Mr Tambourine Man” was a bigger hit, “My Back Pages” was their finest Dylan cover and such a great statement of one’s pursuit of wisdom.

John Burke

My favorite is John Doe’s version of “Pressin’ On.” It’s the best track from the I’m Not There Soundtrack and Christian Bale shreds as the “Saved” Dylan in his performance of the track in the film. Dylan “Jesus period” was the first albums that I bought on my own as a teenager and have always been among my favorites.

Tim Van Meter

Warren Zevon – Knocking on Heaven’s Door

http://www.facebook.com/david.squire.9 David Squire

Probably as with many people, I got into Dylan via covers of his songs, but the one that started me listening to him without the prevalent anti-Bob bias of the British music press in the late 70s/early 80s was a version of “You’re Going To Make me Lonesome When You Go” by Ben Watt. Some friends, C86 indie popsters,The Flatmates, later borrowed a compilation LP I’d picked up, and covered “If Not For You”, including my pal Jer on harmonica, so that stands out too.

http://twitter.com/GFriday Graham Friday (@GFriday)

Yo La Tengo’s version of “I Threw It All Away”

http://gravatar.com/flydubs William Evans

Jimi Hendrix version of All Along The Watchtower!!

http://sunshinerainflowers.wordpress.com mkcleveland

A couple weeks ago I was front row at 930 club when The Lumineers covered Subterranean Homesick Blues. What energy! What passion! They blew me away and I could feel Dylan in the room.

Lucas S

Beck’s cover of “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” is where it’s at!

Eric Hoffman

Ministry’s version of Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” is simply amazing ! if you’ve never heard its a must listen 🙂

Kai Neander

Either Pearl Jam’s cover of “Masters of War or Tracy” Chapman’s cover of “The Times They are A-Changing”

Jim Harden

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash on GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY.

Karen

Cat Power’s cover of Paths of Victory. Simple and beautiful.

TRatner

Cat Power version of “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again”

Chris

“Highway 61 Revisited” by Johnny Winter on “Second Winter”. This album has some of Johnny Winter’s greatest guitar work, and put that together with a great Dylan song, and some great rock and roll ensues.

Jennifer Austin

Call me crazy, but I still enjoy rockin’ out to Tom Petty and Bob Dylan’s “Jammin’ Me”!